


Lightfly 1945

by wheel_pen



Series: Immortals [3]
Category: Firefly
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-01
Updated: 2015-03-01
Packaged: 2018-03-15 17:26:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3455624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wheel_pen/pseuds/wheel_pen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>River has a major announcement to make, and a terrifying future to reveal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lightfly 1945

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. The Immortals are powerful Earth beings who have children with mortals and are supposed to take care of them. The different clans are inspired by various movies and TV shows.  
> 2\. The bad words are censored; that’s just how I do things.  
> 3\. I own nothing, and I appreciate the chance to play in these universes.

_July, 1945_

 

            Most of the family was sitting down to dinner in the main mess hall, laughing and joking as they gathered around the large wooden table. They didn’t need to eat, of course; it was purely a social occasion, but one they greatly enjoyed. Simon stood back, just out of sight in the doorway, watching them with a slight smile on his face. He actually _did_ need to eat, but he appreciated the way his family made the act pleasant instead of utilitarian.

            But realizing that made what he had to say to them even more bittersweet. He shook his head, telling himself not to overthink things—his mother always said he looked to the endings too much, instead of enjoying the journey. And really the ending of this journey wouldn’t come for some time yet.

            Though he felt the countdown had now begun.

            He tried to be subtle about catching Mal’s eye, but ‘subtle’ was not one of his family’s hallmarks. “What are you lurkin’ around for, Doc?” Mal asked, drawing everyone’s attention. “Get the grub while it’s hot.”

            “Could I talk to you for a second?” Simon asked instead, still attempting to be discreet.

            “Is something wrong?” Kaylee asked, genuinely worried but slightly intrusive. Simon appreciated the concern, but her question only delayed Mal’s response and thus prolonged the interruption.

            “Sister Crazy flippin’ out again?” Jayne grunted heartlessly, reaching for more food. Unfortunately Simon had not yet learned to control his reactions to the man’s remarks and flashed him a glare that all but confirmed the suggestion.

            “Aw, h—l, what’s she done now?” Mal asked in exasperation. “She should be happy—we’re headed for that G-dforsaken lake in the middle of the desert like she wanted, ‘stead of helpin’ out with the war in Europe.”

            “If I could just talk to you for a second—“ Simon repeated in a low tone.

            “We _are_ talkin’.”

            “He means _alone_ ,” Inara pointed out to her clueless husband, who obviously wasn’t going to pick up Simon’s meaning on his own.

            “Oh. Shoulda just said so,” Mal muttered, standing finally. He seemed unwilling to leave the dining room—possibly because Jayne had a sharp eye on Mal’s unattended steak—and they ended up in a corner near the porthole. “Well, what’s the worry?”

            “It’s good news, actually,” Simon tried to spin.

            “Well you’d best work on your ‘good news’ face, then,” Mal advised dryly.

            Simon nodded distractedly. “The thing is—River, she’s going to—“

            Horribly on cue as always, River appeared in the dining room at that moment with a shout, charged the table, and performed a series of cartwheels down the center. Food went flying as it was either pulled or knocked out of the way, and Wash, who sat at the other end of the table directly in her path, dove to the floor. This turned out to be fortuitous, as River promptly plopped down in his seat and began to eat his meal. “I need nutrients,” she declared. “I’m eating for two now.”

            Mal swung around to stare at Simon. “She’s pregnant!” the younger man confirmed, with an awkward laugh in his attempt to make it more ‘good news’-like. “So that’s exciting, huh?”

            There was a long pause. “Um, congratulations, sweetie,” Kaylee began, starting to stand.

            “Sit down,” Mal told her. “Not ‘til we find out if this is _worth_ congratulatin’ on. By which I mean, does she really _get_ what’s goin’ on?” At this point he finally dropped his voice a little bit, although now everyone else was being very quiet in order to listen in.

            “Well, yes, I think so,” Simon replied, mildly impressed Mal had asked such an astute question so early on.

            “That’s good,” Mal decided thoughtfully. “Then maybe you can explain to me who the _gorram_ father is!” he added, in the more impassioned and aggressive manner Simon had been expecting. “We been on this boat alone for near a month now. And I just can’t shake the feelin’ she’s been took advantage of, given her general state of not-hereness.”

            Simon actually started to smile a little bit at the protectiveness on display. He wasn’t good about picking up on things like that normally, even among people he knew well, and it was touching. “Well, I can assure you, it was really all her own—“

            “And _why_ is everyone lookin’ at me?” Jayne demanded suspiciously.

            River stood suddenly and flounced over to Simon, wrapping her arms around him. “Don’t worry, Simon, you’ll be the best daddy ever!” she told him, kissing his cheek.

            This led to some rather _interesting_ reactions from the rest of the crew. “Uh, no, no,” Simon sputtered, not sure who in the room needed the clarification more, River or the others. “ _Mei-mei_ , remember, I explained to you—“

            “Well, maybe that’s how it goes in them Oracle clans,” Kaylee remarked, struggling mightily to stay positive.

            “Hardly a surprise,” said Zoe dryly.

            “Told you it weren’t me,” Jayne pointed out gleefully.

            “You didn’t, actually,” Wash countered. “Can I have my seat back now?”

            “No, no, it’s just—and ‘hardly a surprise’?” Simon repeated in indignation. “What’s _that_ supposed to mean?” Zoe shrugged but didn’t take it back.

            “Let’s have a toast,” Inara proposed suddenly, “to the new baby.” Several people hesitantly began to go along with her; the rest kept an eye on Simon and Mal for cues.

            “Look, I know the Oracle’s got all kinds of funny rules,” Mal began, “but a little advance warning about your—er, activities would’ve been—“

            “I’m not the father!” Simon finally exclaimed indignantly.

            “Simon?” River’s face crumpled in despair at his denial and immediately he switched gears.

            “ _Mei-mei_ , of course I’ll help you with the baby, but I’m not—I mean, there _is_ no father,” he explained, trying to play to both River and Mal. The reassurance seemed to satisfy one but not the other.

            “Say again?” Mal reacted blankly.

            “Parthenogenesis,” River recited. “Reproduction by development of an unfertilized gamete.”

            Mal’s expression said this was not a clarification of the matter. “It’s kind of like cloning,” Simon offered, internally cringing at resorting to the inaccurate term for the sake of expediency.

            It seemed to work, however. “Ohhh,” Mal replied, understanding dawning. “I get ya. So this baby’s gonna be exactly like River.”

            “Um, yes, more or less,” Simon agreed. “It’s how River… came about as well.”

            “No father?”

            “No father.”

            Mal grinned. “Hey, then, congratulations, little one!” he told River with sincerity, as though the last awkward five minutes hadn’t occurred. He turned back to the table. “Come on, everyone, get up a toast.” Inara was too classy to roll her eyes at this point. “To River and her little, um, clone baby!” The others echoed the toast fondly while Simon smiled uncomfortably at the attention and River stared at them all blankly.

            “I’m going to take a nap,” she declared, heading for the doorway. “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds!”

            “Yeah, I feel like that when I don’t get _my_ nap,” Wash cracked, finally reclaiming his plate.

            “Hope bein’ in the family way ain’t gonna make her all moody,” Mal remarked dryly. “Why does she keep sayin’ that, anyway? At first it was really creepy, and now it’s annoying. And creepy.”

            “I don’t know,” Simon sighed. “It’s something about the lake we’re going to.”

            “I don’t wanna go to no death-lake,” Jayne complained. “What about Tarawa? I liked it there. They had coconuts. And dancing.”

            “And _battles_ ,” Inara snapped at him, remembering the shocking news they had heard a couple of years earlier about the South Pacific paradise they had frequented. Not that the thought of battles was a deterrent for Jayne.

            Simon didn’t have a better answer for them, but that was par for the course with River. “Come have something to eat,” Kaylee suggested pleasantly, and he sat down quietly in a free spot. Vainly he hoped they would forget about him for a few minutes, but his announcement had been too important, and too dramatically relayed. Since he’d been dealing with the situation for several hours already—ever since River’s impromptu announcement to him that morning—he was now feeling oddly exhausted. River-ed out, really. Earlier in his life he would have felt guilty thinking that, but now he understood the importance of acknowledging the burden she placed on him. While still feeling guilty. He didn’t know what kind of effect the pregnancy would have on her, but he knew how much more _he_ would worry, and he hadn’t thought that was possible.

            And there was one other thing, which he hadn’t explained yet to the rest of the family: unlike those around them, an Oracle didn’t usually live much past her daughter’s maturity. There could be only one Oracle at a time. The beginning of this new life signaled the end of River’s own.

            “Gotta lot to take care of with this one,” Mal was saying from his seat. “What kinda family should we be lookin’ for to raise this little one?”

            “Traditionally a well-off, intellectual family in a prosperous society is chosen,” Simon answered, a bit mechanically. How often had he been quizzed on this information during his training? “We don’t have to abide by the usual neutrality statutes. The child will be extremely intelligent, so that should be encouraged by the adoptive family.”

            Mal nodded thoughtfully. “Didn’t you say you and River were brought up by the same human folks?” he remembered.

            “That’s right,” Simon agreed, picking at his food. “Usually an immortal brother, from the same family I mean, is raised with the young Oracle, but…” He shrugged, having already pondered this issue. “There’s no child the right age here, so we may have to look to other families.”

            Mal didn’t seem especially bothered by this. “Well, that _is_ exciting, isn’t it?” he replied generally, as satisfied as if _he_ had had a hand in bringing this baby about. Simon appreciated how accepting everyone was of River and her eccentricities, although after over four centuries it really shouldn’t continue to surprise him like this. Despite the enlightened-for-their-time human family in which he and River had been raised, his formative years had still been spent in a world of formality and restraint, and he had never been able to shake off that demeanor entirely. It made it difficult to relate to the more impassioned, spontaneous members of his current family sometimes, though he tried to remind himself that their emotional outbursts were genuine and well-intentioned.

            Inara and the Shepherd steered the conversation away from Simon and the baby, seeing the distant expression on his face and how little he’d consumed of the food he actually needed. He probably had the most in common with them in terms of attitude, really—they were both much more diplomatic than the rest of the family and understood that often, concealing one’s true emotions was just a matter of courtesy, not deception or delusion. Simon appreciated that about them—although ironically it made them harder to get to know than the more open members of the family.

            Dinner broke up finally, with Simon’s food still mostly untouched, and he wandered back towards the private cabins. He wanted to check on River and make sure she ate something more than whatever she’d stolen from Wash’s plate. Then, he would start making some inquiries about surrogate siblings for River’s baby—he knew Jack and Marie didn’t have any themselves, but maybe someone else in one of their families…

            “Hey, Simon.” He stopped and turned in the hall, a smile lighting his face despite his preoccupation when he saw Kaylee standing there. There was always something radiant about her, even when she was dressed in overalls with grease on her face, like a little bit of the sun had snuck below decks just for him.

            “Kaylee.”

            “Congratulations and all,” she told him. She was obviously a little nervous about something, but Simon had not overlooked the fact that she had been the first to offer good wishes to River, even when everyone—for some bizarre reason—thought _he_ was the father. “Guess you’re gonna be an uncle, huh?”

            “I guess so,” he replied. “My uncle—well, River’s mother’s brother—helped to raise me, after the human family, so…”

            “I guess you’re not actually—“ She glanced around warily and lowered her voice. “—her brother, right?”

            “Well, not technically,” he agreed, grateful for her discretion. River was easily upset by statements like that, however they were meant. “Her mother only had one child, her, and there was no father. River’s mother had married into the family with my parents. We were born within just a few years of each other, so we were placed in the same human family as siblings.”

            “To look out for each other,” Kaylee surmised hopefully.

            Simon smirked a little. “Well, mostly it was _me_ looking out for _her_ ,” he remembered. “She was a very high-spirited child.” There was a pause, and Simon felt his duty nagging at him—he _still_ looked after River. “Well, I should go and—“

            “Hey, um—“ Kaylee stopped him with a hand on his arm. “What about River’s baby? Who’s gonna look out for her?”

            “I don’t know yet,” Simon admitted. “Maybe there’s a cousin who’s with the right kind of family already, or maybe someone’s planning to have one soon…” It wasn’t the ideal solution, but River had chosen to keep her plans to herself so there hadn’t been time to prepare something in advance.

            Kaylee stepped closer to him and brushed a bit of lint off his collar. “Maybe you and I could work on that,” she suggested.

            Simon’s mouth went dry and his brain suddenly refused to work. “Um… how?” he asked, clearing his throat after his voice started to squeak. “You could help me make some calls—“

            “By having a _baby_ , Simon,” Kaylee stated, sounding just the tiniest bit impatient with his slowness.

            “You and me?” He smiled involuntarily and Kaylee started to smile as well. But then he thought of something and frowned suddenly. “I don’t know if I could.”

            Her face fell and she backed away. “Oh. Well, sure, I reckon you would’ve preferred Inara—“

            He’d done it again. Someday he was going to learn to stop saying stupid things to Kaylee. “No, I just mean—“ He took her shoulders to keep her from turning away. “No, I mean—I don’t know if I _could_. Have children. At all.”

            “What?”

            For some reason he didn’t want to let go of her arms. “I just mean—my uncle—er, River’s mother’s—“

            “What about him?” Kaylee interrupted urgently.

            “He never had any children himself,” Simon told her. “I don’t know if he _couldn’t_ , or if he never _tried_ —“ Simon had never really wondered if there was some limitation in this area that applied to him—no one had ever mentioned it before, and you’d think they would. But he didn’t want Kaylee to be disappointed.

            “You’ve had children with humans,” she pointed out. She was holding on to _his_ arms now, too, as though afraid he might try to slip away before she had gotten her question answered.

            “That’s different,” he shrugged. When she looked perplexed he added, “No, really, it is. I have some diagrams in the clinic I could—“

            “I don’t need to see any diagrams, Simon,” Kaylee assured him.

            “Well, I could ask the elders,” he offered practically. He was a problem-solver, after all. “They must know—“

            Kaylee pulled him closer and tilted her head back to look up at him. “Why don’t we just give it a try, and see how it goes?” she suggested warmly.

            Simon smiled slowly. “That sounds like a viable solution,” he agreed, leaning down towards her.

            “Very viable…”

            There was a thump from down the hall and Simon’s head snapped back. “I need to go check on River,” he told Kaylee.

            “I know you do,” she agreed regretfully, letting him go.

            He took a few steps, then turned and looked back at her. “I always have to check on River,” he said, hoping Kaylee understood what he meant in a larger sense. “But can I come see you after?”

            She smiled again, lighting up the dim hallway. “You sure can. I’ll even take a shower first.”

            He decided to save further contemplation of that subject for later. “Okay.”

            “Okay.” There was a pause, during which he didn’t move. “You better go,” she prompted.

            “Right.” Finally he disappeared down the hallway to River’s room, unaware of the big, stupid grin plastered on his face.

            “Took you long enough,” River said when she saw him.

            “Sorry,” he told her, sitting down on the edge of her bed. “I was just talking to—Do you not feel well?” He put a hand to her forehead in concern.

            River brushed it away. “I _mean_ , it took you long enough to have a sexual liaison with Kaylee,” she clarified. “Four and a half centuries!”

            “Sorry,” Simon repeated dryly, checking her pulse. “I’m a late bloomer, I guess.”

            River’s face froze suddenly, her eyes staring off into the distance. “You have difficulty forming emotional attachments with others,” she stated, as if reciting from a book. “It’s my fault.”

            “No, _Mei-mei_ ,” Simon assured her quickly, as he always did. “I’ve always been—more reserved. You remember Alessandra Andolini? Her parents practically threw her at me and I still couldn’t speak to her.”

            River smiled fondly, the smile he remembered as the real thing, before the Oracle came. The smile he would die for. “You were always a dork,” she teased, and he laughed a little. “But four and a half centuries, Simon! That’s a record.”

            “I didn’t realize she liked me that way,” he tried to claim, “for the first couple centuries, anyway.” They both smiled for a moment, then Simon went back to his interrogation. “Did you get enough to eat? You shouldn’t be doing cartwheels like that.”

            River rolled her eyes. “Oh, Simon, you require so much patience,” she sighed. “I’m capable of determining adequate nutrition levels.”

            “I’m sure you are. Do you want me to bring you something?”

            She pushed on him instead, ejecting him from the bed. “Go to your scheduled sexual liaison,” she told him. “Only just—“ She paused again, her eyes unfocusing.

            “River? River?” Simon asked in concern, kneeling down beside her and taking her hand. “Maybe I should stay, just for tonight—“

            “It will be a boy,” she declared, and Simon was confused.

            “I thought it had to be a girl,” he remarked. “Two X chromosomes—well, I guess it doesn’t have to follow the rules of nature—“

            “Not _my_ child,” River corrected in exasperation. “Yours. With Kaylee?”

            “Oh, right, of course, that’s what I was going to try for,” Simon assured her. “To be a—brother to _your_ baby.”

            River put her hand on his cheek. “Don’t forget about Kaylee,” she advised him, although he clearly didn’t understand what she meant. “After, don’t forget about her.”

            “How could I forget about her?” Simon asked in confusion. “Do you want me to stay here until you fall asleep?”

            River shook her head. “She’s waiting for you!”

            Finally Simon stood. “Okay. Let me know if you need anything,” he added earnestly.

            “You need things, too, Simon,” she assessed. “You didn’t eat dinner.”

            “I’m fine,” he shrugged, still unwilling to leave.

            “Get up early tomorrow,” River warned. “Four-thirty, local time. I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

            And didn’t _that_ completely reassure him that everything was okay for the night.

 

**

 

            “Where _are_ we?” Mal asked, striding out onto the deck with some annoyance. The sun was low on the horizon, just beginning to chase away the chill of the desert night. He hadn’t been asleep, of course, but he yawned and stretched anyway, and he didn’t really get cold but he pulled his coat around him more tightly.

            “Elephant Butte Reservoir, New Mexico,” Simon answered. He _had_ slept during the night (though not much) and _did_ get cold, so he was bundled in a sweater with Kaylee beside him radiating a satisfied warmth. They made eye contact and smiled a little before his gaze flickered off to check on River, who was leaning on the side of the ship further down the deck. Mal gave the two of them a speculative glance as he passed.

            “Elephant Butt?” Jayne repeated incorrectly, looking around the uninviting landscape with distaste. “Seems about right.”

            “I’m told there’s a town nearby, Hot Springs,” Inara remarked pleasantly. “They have some wonderful spas. Maybe we could stop by.”

            “Well how ‘bout it, Oracle?” Mal asked. “What’s the plan for today? You got a supersecret meeting or what?”

            “Truth?” River replied vaguely. “Or consequences?”

            “Okay,” Mal decided, giving up. “We’ll just sit here on this lake for a while, then.”

            “Everything’s ready, Captain,” Ursuline chirped, appearing on deck. The rest of the crew followed her, some looking less than pleased at being up and about at such an hour.

            Mal frowned at her. “What kinda ‘ready’ are you talkin’ about?”

            “The Oracle said we should put special protections around the boat, and we did!” the nymph burbled brightly. “Can we go to those hot springs spas later?”

            “’Less’in I hear otherwise,” Mal shrugged, walking away from the squeals of excitement before they became too piercing. He stopped beside River. “What special protections do we need?” he asked irritably. He didn’t like things to happen on his boat that he didn’t know about.

            “It’s almost time,” she answered instead, looking off towards the southeast where a small mountain range rose out of the multicolored desert.

            “What did I tell you about gettin’ this family into trouble?” he snapped at her. “Look, we’re here, and it’s a pretty uninviting place to be, so why don’t you—“

            “Shh,” River said, placing a hand on his arm to still him. “The future’s here.”

            She pointed and they all stared. Suddenly there was a flash of light beyond the mountains, so bright they thought the sun had suddenly risen, though it wasn’t quite the right direction. In just a second or two the light turned green and purple and white, and then a huge cloud of black and white smoke rose on a thin column straight up from the ground.

            “What is that?” Mal finally breathed in the cold, silent air. He couldn’t figure out why, but the sight of it filled him with dread.

            “Ammunitions magazine explosion?” Zoe guessed, not taking her eyes off the ballooning cloud of smoke. “Maybe with some pyrotechnics?”

            “Never seen one like that—“ Mal started to counter—then the roar of the explosion reached them. For a few seconds every sound in the world was drowned out except for the blast, a noise like some unstoppable force rushing towards them, leaving them as panicked and confused as if the world had been suddenly plunged into total darkness. When the noise began to recede Mal saw that several of his crew with better survival instincts than his own had hit the deck, while he was still foolishly clutching the rail and making a perfect target of himself. Although someone who could make an explosion like that didn’t need to worry about aim.

            Shepherd Book was praying quietly. Kaylee was sobbing, her face buried against Simon’s chest and his arms wrapped tightly around her. Inara looked like she wanted to cry, too, but she knew Mal could offer her no comfort until he had figured this out.

            “Accident?” he asked River, after swallowing hard. It was a faint hope.

            “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” she said once again. She didn’t seem particularly concerned, however. “You are the invincible source, the cause of all causes, transcendental to this material manifestation.”

            “What?”

            “A core of plutonium compressed to supercritical density by detonating high explosives in a spherical configuration,” River tried again, still staring out at the rising smoke.

            “That doesn’t sound like an accident,” Shepherd Book commented ominously.

            “Sounds like a weapon,” Zoe decided.

            Finally tearing his eyes away from the black cloud, Mal turned to River angrily. “What _is_ this?” he demanded, grabbing her sweater roughly. “What does it _mean_?”

            Simon was on him in an instant, trying to pull him away. “Leave her alone! It’s not her fault!” Several of the others piled on as well; as soon as she was free River scampered out of reach, climbing up a rope about ten feet above the deck. Instantly the focus of Simon’s attention changed. “River, come down from there!”

            “It’s the future!” she shouted down at them. “There’s more power in the heart of an atom than in the greatest furnace!”

            “If that’s the backfire on the new Ford, count me out,” Wash joked shakily.

            River hopped back down to the deck and Simon embraced her protectively, staying between her and Mal. “Can we go to the geothermally-heated groundwater sources?” she asked him with childish eagerness. He sighed and made eye contact with Mal, who turned away stiffly.

            “Get me the elders,” he snapped to Ursuline.

            “You shouldn’t fear the future,” River advised, seemingly confused by the reactions of those around her. “Just some bumps along the road. Hot, cold, bright, dark. Energy is power.” Simon had no idea what she was talking about, but he pulled her closer and slipped his other arm around Kaylee again. Now there were two beings coming into the world whose futures he wanted to make as safe as possible—and the cloud drifting across the desert only filled him with fear.


End file.
